William Whipple was born at Kittery, in New Hampshire (that portion which is now the state of Maine) in the year 1730. His early education was recieved at a commen school in his native town. When quite a lad, he went to sea, in which occupation he was engaged for several years. At the age of twenty nine, (1759), he quitted the seafaring life, and, with his brother, Joseph Whipple, entered into mercentile pursuits in Portsmith, New Hampshire.
He early espoused the cause of the colonies and soon became a leader among the oppisition to the British authority. In 1775 he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, and was chosen by that body, one of the Commitee of Safety. 1 When, in 1775, the people of the state organized a temporary government, Mr. Whipple was chosen a member of the Council. In January, 1776, he was chosen a delagate to the Continental Congress, and was among those who, on the fourth of July of that year, voted for the Declaration of Independence. He remained in Congress until 1777, when he retired from that body, having been appointed a Brigadier General of the New Hampshire Militia. He was very active in calling out and equipping for the campaign against Burgoyne. He commanded one brigade, and General Stark the other. He was under Gates at the capture of Burgoyne, and was one of the commissioners to arrange the terms of capitulation. He was afterwards selected one of the officers to march the British prisoners to Cambridge, near Boston.
| 1These comitees were organized in several of the States. Their business was to act as an executive body to regulate the general concerns of the government during the continuance of the war. These committees were of vast importance, and acted efficiently in conjunction with the committees of correspondence. In some instances they consisted each of the smae men. |
| 2The Court D'Estang agreed to assist Sullivan in reducing the town of Newport, but just as he was entering the harbor, the fleet of Lord Howe, from New York, appeared, and he procceeded to attack him. A storm prevented an engagement, and both fleets were greatly damaged by the gale. D'Estang, instead of remaining to assist Sullivan, sailed for Boston, under the pretence of repairing his shattered vessels. |
| 3Robert Morris was then the manager of finances of the Confederation, and these agents in the various States were a kind of sub-treasurers. Hence it was an office that required honest and faithful incumbents. |
| 4The early western boundary of Connecticut, before the organization of New York, was, like most of the other States on the Atlantic, quite indefinent. A Colony from this province had settled in the Wyoming valley, and that region was not included in New York. It was within the bounds of Pensylvania, hence the dispute. |
| 5At that time the Courts in New Hampshire were constituted of four judges, of whom the first, or Chief Justice, only, was a lawyer, the others being chosen from among civilians, distinguished fore sound judgement, and a good education. |
He joined Sullivan in his expidition against the British on Rhode Island in 1778, with a pretty large force of New Hampshire Militia. But the perverse conduct of the French Admiral D'Estaing, in not sustaining the seige of Newport, 2 caused a failure of the expedition, and General Whipple, with his brigade, returned to New Hampshire.
In 1780, he was offered the situation of Commisioner of the Board of Admiralty, but he declined it. In 1782, he was appointed by Robert Morris, financial agent in New Hampshire,3 but he resigned the trust in the course of a year. During that year, he was appointed one of the commissioners to settle the dispute between Pensylvania and Connecticut, concerning the Wyoming domain, and was appointed president of the Court.4 He was also appointed, during that year, a side judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire.5
Soon after his appointment, in attempting to sum up the arguments of counsel, and submit the case to the jurry, he was attacked with a violent palpatation of the heart, which ever after troubled him. In 1785 he was seriously affected while holding court; and, retiring to his chamber, he never left it again while living. He expired on the twenty-eigth day of November, 1785, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He requested a post mortem examination, which being done, it was found that a portian of his heart had become ossified, or bony. Thus terminated the valuable life of one who rose from the rank of a cabin boy, to a rank among the first men of his country. His life and character present one of those bright examples of self-reliance which cannot be too often pressed upon the attention of the young; and, although surrounding circumstances hadf much to do in the development of his talents, yet, after all, the great secret of his success was doubtless a hopeful reliance upon a conscious ability to perform any duty required of him.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of the SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: the DECLARATION HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED; AND A SKETCH OF THE LEADING EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE ADOPTION OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, AND OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. BY B. J. LOSSING, 1848.
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